Gallery/Collection Access: Who Can Download Your Images?

The ability to assign download permissions to galleries and collections is one of the most powerful features in your PhotoShelter account. PhotoShelter allows you to determine who can download your images, when access expires, what file size can be downloaded, and more. You can apply very specific download permissions to any gallery or collection within your account – you may even set your nested content to inherit permissions from their parent collection.

You may grant download access to the appropriate visitors in one of two ways: password or login. You may even combine passwords and logins for a single gallery or collection. The two methods work as follows:

Create a password: You create the password, provide it to the appropriate parties, and they'll enter this password after clicking the link to the given gallery or collection. You may use your Image Browser to send the URL and the password, or you may send it to your clients through your own email account -- whatever works for you. Passwords are generally considered to be a lighter form of security, as they are used anonymously and can be easily forwarded along.

Grant access to specific people: With this setting, only specific people of your choosing may view a gallery or collection, and before entering they'll need to log in to a (totally free) PhotoShelter account to identify themselves. If the recipient doesn't already have a PhotoShelter buyer account, they'll be prompted to create one. (To keep this process smooth, we recommend that you send email notifications through your Image Browser; this way, we can check to see whether the person is in our system already and prompt accordingly.)

Note: In addition to allowing downloads from galleries and collections, we suggest you check out the other primary ways of sending image files to clients: Trusted Client, Quick Send, and FTP.

Setting Download Permissions to a Gallery or Collection

You can set or change download permissions to a gallery or collection at any time.

1. From the Left Pane of your Image Browser, select the gallery or collection from which you'd like to allow downloads.

2. Locate the Visibility and Access section in the Right Pane of your Image Browser. You may click the arrow to expand the section in order to view your selection’s current download permissions (posed as the answer to the question, Who can download this?). To edit, click the gear icon.

3. You'll then see the Visibility & Access pop-up box where you can enable download permissions and change the gallery visibility. (To familiarize yourself with visibility - Who can see this gallery/collection? - check out this article first.) If you've selected a nested gallery or collection that's nested within another a collection, you'll see the option to inherit the permissions of the parent collection. If you'd like your gallery or collection to have the same permissions as its parent, check the box next to Inherit from. This way, you can more easily control the permissions strictly from the parent collection, and you'll only have to make any changes from this single location. If this applies to you, check the box, click the Submit button and navigate to the parent collection to set up your download permissions from there.

Note: Even if a nested gallery inherits its parent collection’s permissions, you may still add specific permissions that apply only to that gallery. (This makes sense, for example, if there are certain people who can view everything in the collection, but there are others who only get access to certain nested galleries within that collection.) In this case, be sure the box next to Inherit from is checked. Then, click the blue linked words Add Permissions,and continue following the instructions below

4. To add download permissions, you'll follow a slightly different set of steps based on your gallery or collection's visibility. If it's is set to Everyone, then click the blue Add Download Permissions link. This will present you with a pair of options for granting download access: via password (Create password) or via individual login (Grant access to specific people). If your gallery or collection's visibility is set to Those with permission, this set of options will be there for you already. Click the appropriate option for your first permission.

5. If you've chosen the password option, type the desired password into the text field. This is the password that your visitors will need to access downloads for this gallery or collection. If you've opted to grant only specific people access, type the email address(es) of the permitted viewer(s) into the field provided. If you've created a contact group in your Address Book, you may also enter a group name here to grant download permission to everyone in that group.

6. If you'd like to set an expiration date for this password, person, or group,click the blue linked words None next to the expiration (EXP) calendar.

7.Now, set your download permissions, which are spread out across several fields. The next field to the right, DL TYPE, determines the type of downloads allowed (if any) – specifically the file format and maximum size. The default is set to View only (which disallows no downloads), change this by selecting one of the alternative options in the drop-down menu. You may offer original files, the option to convert to JPEGs on the fly where relevant, and allow up to only a max size (even up to a custom size that you specify). To the right of the DL TYPE field, you’ll find the DL MAX option, which allows you toenter a numeric limit on the images that may be downloaded for this particular password, person, or group.

Note: By default, there is no limit. Do not enter 0 as your limit unless you want to prevent downloads!

8. If you'd like to add a varying level of download access to another password, person, or group, click the blue linked words Add another permission. Note that if you're working with multiple people and groups with the same level of access, you may add them all into the same field to save time.

9. To notify your clients of their access straight from your PhotoShelter account, which we recommend particularly when granting specific people access, click the Save & Notify button.

10. To send out email notifications to people who have access to the gallery or collection, check the boxabove the email prompt (if it's not already checked when you get there). In some cases, when working with multiple permission sets for the same content, this pop-up box will have the option to send more than one email message.

12. Enter the desired email addresses and a subject line into the provided text fields. Note that if you're sending to specific people or groups, you won't be able to edit the email addresses from this screen, although you may exclude certain people from receiving the email by unchecking the boxes next to their names.

13. After reviewing the automatically generated email message and editing it if desired, click Submit, and your emails will be sent.

Batch Editing Visibility & Inheritance

To change the visibility or inheritance of more than one gallery and/or collection at once, look to the Edit visibility & inheritance option within the Actions menu located in the Center Pane.

1. In the Center Pane, select the galleries and collections you would like to edit. To select all, use the blue linked words All at the top of the Center Pane; to make specific selections, hold down the command key (Mac) / Ctrl key (PC) while clicking your preferred selections.

2. From the Actions drop-down menu, selectEdit visibility & inheritance. The Edit Visibility & Access pop-up box will appear. Follow the instructions above to edit the visibility or the inheritance behavior for the items in your selection.